Musings on the Journey of a Human: Being…

Reflections

Times like this are enough to make anyone go mad… regardless of which side we’re on. Personally, the past week has left me raw… not only because of the tensions in the political climate, but other personal issues. The experiences I’ve had recently have run the gamut from major to minor, and have allowed me to again get in touch with some deeply appreciated humility.

I’ve found that even when I’m right, it doesn’t necessarily mean that others are wrong. I’ve also learned (again) that I can be wrong even when I’m perfectly justified in my feelings or actions. As much as I hate to admit my own shortcomings, I find it necessary to do so quickly so that I can reconnect with my own moral compass and remember that we all have different experiences, and they are all valid. What matters is what we do with them… how we choose to use them to help us, and help each other move forward into our potential. As long as we are willing to reflect and keep moving forward, the number of times that we stumble no longer matter.

There is a lot to be feared in this world, and in the actions of those currently in power. But when we buy into that fear and paint everything black or white, we become blind to the beauty that makes everything in life worth living, and even dying, to experience. Certainly there is a matter of right and wrong… and there will be many times that we have to define what this is for ourselves and decide whether or not it is good for our family, community, and society, or not. Some things are inexplicably evil… but we often spend so much time justifying our own reactions to the world that we aren’t able to see how insidiously that evil can set in and take over. The definition between right and wrong becomes blurred because we find ourselves in a position of choosing to do what we feel is wrong to justify or protect what we feel is right.

Time and again, the human experience has expressed from holy books to comic books the roots of evil; those deeply justified emotions of people who have felt deep loss, vulnerability, defilement, shame, injustice, or trauma. At some point, those whom we define as evil cross the line from justifiable to uncontrolled emotions, which leads to uncontrolled behavior. We begin to focus on trying to enforce our own insecurities on the world around us, perhaps because we aren’t confident that we can enforce them in ourselves, or perhaps we are unable to see that our path is not the same as others, and that what we need to master is not the same as what they need to master, all the time failing to see that we are becoming that which we disavow.

We celebrate our victories over the obvious evils that we see as being outside of ourselves, but there is a subtler beauty that lies in the challenge of surrendering what we hold dearest so that we can open up to the deeper truths which color the human experience so brilliantly and allow us to see that what we see outside of ourselves is only a reflection of what we see within.

Stay close to what you truly value, so you can see your own beauty and how your flaws accentuate or detract from it; and in doing so, you will see it in the world around you, regardless of what others may do to rob you of your vision in the pursuit of their own.